Whole Foods targets location near Heights for its first low-price supermarket in Texas

Whole Foods targets Heights area for new low-price supermarket

Houston is one of the first five cities to get a branch of 365 by Whole Foods Market, the "streamlined, value-oriented" grocery chain aimed at millennials.

The Houston store will be located at Interstate 610 and Yale, and is the first 365 by Whole Foods Market store in Texas, according to spokesman Michael Silverman. "We haven’t announced the timetable for the opening of the Houston store," Silverman says, but store openings are scheduled through 2017.

The Houston location will be at the northeast corner of Yale and Loop 610, near the Heights, Garden Oaks and Oak Forest neighborhoods, in a new complex called Yale Marketplace.

The company has also secured leases for 365 by Whole Foods Market locations in Bellevue, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Santa Monica, California. The first 365 store will be located in the hipster Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.

In a release, Jeff Turnas, president of 365 by Whole Foods Market describes the concept as having "a fresh format and a unique product assortment."

"We think 365 will offer convenience and value while providing the quality standards and transparency that consumers love and expect," he says. One of its selling points is lower prices on natural and organic products.

According to the release, the first locations will open in the second half of 2016, and the company plans to double the number of 365 by Whole Foods Market store openings in 2017.